WeedFighter Replaces Gas Burning and Pesticides on Sidewalks and Paths
When it comes to weed control on paved areas, there is a sharp focus on economics, the environment, and climate. Herning Municipality sees good potential in the new solution, WeedFighter.
Herning Municipality has not used pesticides for weed control since 1996, except for giant hogweed.
– On paved areas, we have instead used gas burning,” says Svend-Erik Blaabjerg, operations manager for the green areas in the municipality.
However, gas burning, for example, is both an expensive and not particularly environmentally friendly method of weed control.
– Therefore, we have been looking for other, better, and more sustainable solutions for a long time,” he points out.
In the considerations, there have been hot water, steam, and new types of gas burners.
– But nothing has really emerged that we could consider better,” he asserts.
That changed, however, when he read about the new solution called WeedFighter a few years ago.
Has Double the Capacity of Gas
Interest was truly piqued when Svend-Erik Blaabjerg had the opportunity to see the new solution at the “Machines under the Bridge” exhibition in 2022.
Based on a conversation with Jens Bruun Skifter from the WeedFighter company, our assessment was that this solution could probably give us much of what we were looking for,” he explains.
It was especially the higher capacity in terms of fewer treatments and increased driving speed that seemed interesting.
Now we have had the equipment mounted on our Holder utility vehicle, and it looks good, I believe,” he says.
A Machine Saved
The auxiliaries for weed control cost roughly the same as gas for gas burning per unit area.
But with the increased capacity, we can, according to our current assessment, make do with one WeedFighter that can cover the same area as two gas burners,” emphasizes Svend-Erik Blaabjerg.
So, in the weed control season, one utility vehicle and one man can be saved.
This is, of course, both economically and environmentally and climate-wise better than using gas burning,” he thinks.
“For several years, we’ve been looking for a new and better solution than gas burning. With WeedFighter, I believe we’ve found the solution that meets our expectations,” says Svend-Erik Blaabjerg from Herning Municipality.
“I drive more than twice as fast and therefore cover a much larger area in a day with less resource consumption,” asserts Niels Magnus Magnusson, machine operator on WeedFighter.
Effect Visible After a Few Days
Machine operator Niels Magnus Magnusson operates WeedFighter.
I drive well and easily twice as fast as with the gas burner, and I can probably drive up to three times faster once I have become accustomed to the solution,” he says.
The effect is also visible after three to four days.
The weeds turn brown and appear to wither away,” he says.
Furthermore, it is expected that where previously eight to ten passes were required on the same area in a season, the same control can now be achieved with four to five passes.
Mutual Exchange
We are very excited to see if our expectations are met. As it looks now, I believe in it,” says Svend-Erik Blaabjerg.
He also knows that with an entirely new solution, there is the opportunity to make small improvements over time.
We have had a really good dialogue with Jens Skifter, and we look forward to continuing that,” he concludes.
